Title post

I believe that I have found the perfect blog name for my life.  If I do not have a reason to get something done, it will take a while to happen.  If I do not have anything to get out of bed for, I will just lay there.  Luckily, I have two little walking alarm clocks that start asking me to help them as soon as they wake up.  Maybe I should lovingly name them Impulse 1 and Impulse 2.  My wife would be Impulse 1, but I am not stupid enough to call her that.

I have lounged for the past couple of months even though I am at a new school this year with new students, new rules and procedures, new schedule, and slightly different courses.  I know I have a lot to learn.  Isn't that a big enough Impulse to get me off my keister?  Well, the day came a little over two weeks ago that the Impulse was looming large enough for me to make the choice to get crackin'.  So I went about preparing my room and finding all of the beginning of the term files that were brought with all the others in boxes from my last school.  I was getting anxious.  I was not sleeping well.  It was like I was driving around without a destination.  I had an Impulse, but no vision.

I have been anxious because the district I am joining appears to be pretty impressive.  I get the feeling that a lot of my physics students will be of a high caliber.  The teacher I am replacing has been there since the school opened around 15 years ago.  Between advising the Robotics team that went to Nationals last year and trying to prepare students for an science project worthy of the Intel International Science & Engineering Fair, I have been anxious.  I get the feeling that just being the physics teacher isn't enough.  How am I going to raise my teaching to a new level?

During the past week a vision has presented itself through a couple of ways.  I read the book, "An Ethic of Excellence" by Ron Berger which helped me think of a bigger picture of education.  Among other things it discusses using relevant projects in your curriculum.  More importantly Berger reminded me that students will produce excellent work if we give them a reason and if they feel accountable for it.  Some of my anxiety was lifted because I don't need to do a lot of new stuff, just take the necessary steps to make it the best I can.


On Tuesday, I went the district's new teacher orientation.  As we met with the superintendent someone's cell phone went off.  He stopped and told us all to turn our cell phones on and put them on the tables in front of us.  I am coming from a district with a policy to confiscate all cell phones for a week if they are out during learning time.  So I was not sure what to think.  A short time later, he presented us with a question and had us text the answer to his phone.  This was followed by a short comment about the possibilities of using cell phones in the classroom.  USING CELL PHONES IN THE CLASSROOM?!?!?

I have since gone to a technology summit hosted by the district and learned that (in addition to cell phones) YouTube, blogs, outside email sites, and social media sites are not blocked and are encouraged.  This is a complete 180 degree shift from my last district.  I have spent the last five days learning as much as I can about using handheld mobile devices in class and learning how to blog.  

All I need is an Impulse